Tides Of War 1: The Great Galactic War
by RussianGod5
Summary: War... no matter the species, war is always present, Peace is nothing but a distant dream, what happens when several civilizations discover each other and get into a war of titanic proportions? Alliances will be formed, several battles and massacres will ensure, and the face of the galaxy will be forever changed, heavy AU, rated T for violence,
1. Introduction

Hi! This is a new story i will be writing, a StarCraft/Mass Effect cross-over, and well, it has lots of background changes in it, some to fit this story "Canon" (for example, humans aren't in the Citadel Council for obvious reasons) and some to make the story more interesting (like, Overmind is still alive and Raynor rebellion was crushed) and other things will be removed completely from this story ( Reapers and Hybrids ) this story will mainly revolve around a Galaxy-Wide war between various Galactic governments, and, sorry if I offend any Mass Effect fan, but I think that the Starcraft Naval technology is superior to the ME one, of course, not far superior, but significantly superior, don't worry, this story won't have lots of curbstomping elements, well, maybe one chapter or two will have ones, but curbstomping will be mostly be out of this story, now, in this "Intro" I will give a Timeline to explain the background behind the new governments, story changes, etc. keep in mind that this is not the real storyline, its altered to fit this story, Highlighted numbers represent important time periods, btw, this is heavily AU I hope you enjoy this story!

Timeline (StarCraft)

1000: The Protoss, after a time of inner conflict, begin a golden era of exploration and form the Protoss Empire, led by an Emperor with a small council known as the Conclave serves as the Emperor advisers

2229: The United Powers League, formed by Earth powers, is established as the ruling faction of The Earth and its colonies

2255: Due to population problems, a program created by the UPL sends over 40,000 criminals in Cryo-stasis to another system in four Supercarriers

2259: The Supercarriers experience a problem and they end up in the Koprulu System, one of the Ships is destroyed before they arrive and the passengers die, the remaining ships land in Tarsonis, Umoja, and Moria respectly

2323: The tarsonian people colonize numerous planets and form the Terran Confederancy, the other colonists follow their steps and form the Umojan Protectorate and the Kel-Morian Combine

2478: Angus Mengsk starts a revolution in korhal agains the Confederancy with the help of the Umojan Protectorate

2485-2489: the Kel-Morian Combine and the Confederancy enter a conflict known as the Guild Wars; the war ends in 2489, that same year Angus Mengsk declares the independence of Korhal, back on Earth, a rebellion begins, there are three contingents In the rebellion, the UPL, led by President Jacob Whymper, the New Bolsheviks Revolutionaries, led by Former Rear-Admiral Alexei Stukov, and the Extremist Fascist rebels led by William Davorian

2491: the Confederancy destroys Korhal with Nuclear Bombs, the Sons Of Korhal is formed, with the son of Angus, arcturus Mengks, leading them

2499: First Contact between the Terrans, the Zerg, and later the Protoss in Chau Sara, beginning with the invasion of the Zerg, and ending with the purification of the planet by the Protoss, troops at the command of James Raynor rescue confederates at Backwater station, they are then arrested by General Edmund Duke, The Sons Of Korhal rescue the remaining milita in Mar Sara city and then free Raynor and his Soldiers, both the magister of the former colony and Raynor join the Sons Of Korhal. Raynor steals key-information from Jacobs station, then they stage a revolution in Antiga Prime, which was later destroyed by the Zerg when Mengks tested a PSI Emitter in the planet, Edmund Duke joins the rebellion, with his help, the rebels soon arrive to Tarsonis and occupy an important space station there, a small force led by Sarah Kerrigan arrives and implants various PSI Emitters, when the Zerg arrive, the protoss fleet send another force to destroy the main hive, but are stopped by the force led by Kerrigan, that later commits suicide when the Zerg overrun their small army, James Raynor turns on Mengks, but he and the soldiers were killed when they tried to steal the Hyperion, crushing the rebellion before it started

2500: The Terran Dominion is established, Arcturus Mengks is crowned as the Emperor of the Dominion, all former confederancy worlds join the Dominion, The Expeditionary Fleet led by Executor Tassadar is ordered to stay in Dominion Space back on Earth and its colonies, the Fascist rebellion ends with the Decisive Battle of San Fransisco, and the UPL is overthrown by the New Bolsheviks Revolutionaries, they adopt the banner of the Soviet Union and form a Communist Government known as The Union of Communist Human Nations, or The UCHN , they begin a golden era of Human Expansion and Military power of the systems near the Solar System

2500-2512: The Great War begins with the Purification of the Dominion Planet of Solus, it was caused due to a small incident in which the Terran Behemot-Class Battlecruiser "The Reaper" fired its Yamato Cannon against a Protoss Carrier with the shield offline, the blast destroyed the carrier, and two more Battlecruisers arrived to "The Reaper" Position to help the ship against any attack, at this, the Protoss Super-Carrier and Tassadar Flagship, Gantrithor, teleported to the position of the three ships, and it destroyed the three of them with the Purifier ray, then proceeded to purificate the planet Solus

they then traveled to to the Planet of Daralian, where the Terran offered more resistance, this time with a force of up to 20 Behemot-Class Battlecruisers and 30 Minotaur class Battlecruisers, the Protoss demonstrated their Naval and Strategic superiority by defeating the fleet with their small fleet of only 30 Carriers, they purified Daralian after the battle, and left with back to Protoss Space, Mengks orders the fleet to prepare to defend the Dominion Mengks deploys a fleet at the command of Admiral Darius Varidus, they get a 100 Minotaur-class, Behemot-Class Battlecruisers, and Hercules-Class Battlecruisers, the protoss return with a fleet of 199 Carriers and 1 Super-Carrier, that assaulted a planet in the edge of Terran space, but didn't expected the defense force, surprising them in an ambush, 20 Carriers where destroyed, and in the battle, the Protoss struggled but eventually where victorious, with a remaining fleet of 120 Carriers and a Super-Carrier, they begin to purify or occupy several planets of the outer colonies

Darius Varidus, that managed to escape at the end of the battle, organizes his 20 remaining ships and gets 10 colony ships, which are rapidly armed with several laser batteries, turrets, and a strong main cannon, back in Korhal, 300 Battlecruisers of several types and more than 5,000 Marines, Maraduers, Ghosts, and other ground units, form into an Elite force named "The Sons Of Korhal" after the rebel organization that formed the Dominion, they are under the command of Edmund Duke and begin to prepare to destroy the Protoss Fleet, meanwhile, the Umojan Protectored, that had a formidable army, invaded the Kel-Morian Combine, the Invasion Fleet, under the command of Fidelius Marat, takes the upper-hand of the conflict, managing several victories

The Sons Of Korhal elite force then destroyed the 200 Carrier fleet in 2503 that was in dominion space for years, in 2504, the protoss launched a full scale invasion to the dominion, with a total of 2,300 ships, mostly occupying the dominion worlds, the dominion forms 12 fleets to defend their Planets, in two years of bloody war, the first, second, fourth, and sixth fleet are destroyed, and the protoss fleet is reduced to 1,200 ships

in 2506, the Overmind, after a long time of waiting, finally Attacks the Protoss Empire, as the main fleet was in Dominion Space, they easily take and infect 10 worlds and destroy a good part of the Protoss defense fleet in the course of a year, the protoss Emperor desesperatly called the Invasion fleet back, and tassadar sent 800 of its ship back to the homeworld, seeing the opportunity Edmund Duke calls all the fleets and surrounds the ships, destroying the fleet, Emperor Mengks then orders an invasion to the Protoss empire in 2508, the invasion is largely successful, with the protoss fighting both the zerg and the terran, the Protoss surrender in 2509 to the Terrans, and after some negotiations, the terran stay with half of the worlds they conquered, Half of the invasion fleet returns to Dominion space, while the other half helps the remaining protoss fleet to push back the Zerg after two months of fighting, they discover that there is a third front in the war against the Zerg, an UCHN Expeditionary fleet, the fleet was sent to the Korplu system months ago to engage in diplomatic relations with the terran governments, but instead they found the Zerg, the Protoss Empire, The UCHN, and The Terran Dominion form an alliance, and they slowly push the Zerg back to Char

back on the Terran space, the Kel-Morian combine begs for the help of the dominion mengks sent the ships that returned from the protoss invasion to Kel-Morian space, where they help them to push back the Umojans, the Great War ended in 2512, when the Kel-Morian combine recovered most of its territory, leaving the Umojans with only ¼ of the Kel-Morian space, on the Zerg front, the battle ends with the Siege Of Char, that ended in a Terran victory, the protoss completely destroyed the planet by purifying over and over again while the terrans bombed it with nukes, the only zerg that managed to escape was the Overmind, whose location is unknown

2512-2520 ( Present Year):at the end of the war, the Kel-Morian Combine was annexed to the Terran Dominion, and The UCHN began to help the Dominion and The Protectorate to recover from the war, and, after a high sum of money from the Dominion, the UCHN gave its advanced slipspace Technology, and a period of peace, prosperity, and trade from 2512 to 2518, that year, relations began to deteriorate with the Protoss, the next year The Protoss Empire isolated itself from the rest of the Galaxy and there were rumors of a rebellion inside the Empire, in fear of a Protoss Invasion, A Zerg Invasion, or an Invasion of an unknown Species, the Umojan Protectorate, The Dominion, And The UCHN form The Terran Alliance, an military and scientific alliance, there are rumors of the Alliance planning to build a ship with all their technologies.

Timeline (Mass Effect) ( CE= Council Era BCE= Before Council Era, the calendar of the Terrans and The Council isn't the same, that's why the years are diferent)

800 BCE – 1 CE: The Citadel Council is formed, the first races to enter are the Asari and The Salarians, on the following years, the Quarians, The Volus, The Batarians, And The Elcor join it, with all races having a councilor

1 CE: The Rachni are found by an expeditionary fleet, they are all destroyed, and the Rachni isolate themselves from the Citadel Council, the Citadel doesn't tries to make any further contact with the Rachni and begin to explorate other systems to find more species to join the Council

5 CE: the Krogan return to be a Space Faring race and begin to colonize other planets and systems

10 CE- 800 CE: War erupts between the Turian Hierachy and The Krogan Empire, known to be the most brutal war in all the galaxy, in 600 CE, the Salarians discovered the turians and the Council helped the losing Hierachy to push the krogan away from their territory, the Turians are brutal, killing every Krogan they find, in 670 CE; the Turians manage to deploy the Salarian developed Genophage in all Krogan worlds, in 780 CE, the Krogan where almost extinct , they surrendered that same year, the turians agreed under the condition of the Krogan Empire joining the Hierachy, the krogans agree and in 20 years a cure for the Genophage is found

1000 CE: the Quarians Create the Geth and the Turians are granted a seat in the Council

1500 CE: the Geth become Sentient, and after some initial fear, the Quarians begin to accept them into their community

1600 CE: the Council Refuses to accept the geth as a council race, and they order the quarians to terminate them, the Quarians refuse and withdrawal from the Council

1800 CE: Tension begins to arise between the Batarians and The Council, the Batarians also withdrawal from the council

2000 CE: The Geth, The Quarians, and The Batarians form the Terminus Alliance, their version of The Citadel Council, they begin to build a massive fleet

2050 CE: Turians withdrawal from the council, and, with the help of the Krogan, they form The Turian Empire

2060 CE: the Terminus Alliance begins to expand to the anarachist Crime-Ruled Terminus

2061-2200 CE: The Council manages to get another race to serve as their main military force with the discovery of the drell and the hanar, two space faring species that had an alliance, they both join the Council in 2061 that same year, the Citadel launches an invasion to the Crime-owned part of the terminus system, the Three races of the Alliance consider this an act of war, and they annex the pirate factions to their Alliance, they deploy a fleet and attack the Citadel Council Invasion fleet, the attack is a complete success, with most of the Council invasion fleet being destroyed, the council responds by mobilizing all their fleets to attack the terminus alliance, they are successful in destroying the defense fleet in the edge of Terminus space the Alliance enters a defensive state as the Citadel slowly conquer planet by planet and slowly approaches the core worlds, in 2100, the war tide changes when the citadel fleet falls in a trap and attacks the Omega station, they use more than ¾ of their invasion fleet to attack, falling into a mortal trap, not knowing the station defenses, they rapidly neutralize the ships set as decoys by the Alliance, and when they begin to approach the Station, the Batarian Fleet appears from a FTL jump and begins to attack the fleet, and then retreating after both sides suffered lots of casualties, the Citadel fleet chased after them, only to be received by a barrage of nuclear weapons coming from the station, reducing the fleet to 2/4, the batarian fleet, now supported by the Quarian fleet, attack again, reducing the fleet to ¼, when they try to escape, they meet their destruction as they are surrounded by the Geth fleet, the battle was known as The First Battle Of Omega the Alliance rapidly pushed the council out of the terminus system, and they began an invasion to the Citadel space, in 2120, the Turian Empire decides to intervene, and, in a lust for expansion, attack both the Terminus alliance and the Citadel Council, the military superiority of the Turians and Krogan and the conflict beetwen the Citadel and The Alliance, the Alliance loses Omega in The Second Battle Of Omega in 2140, and Rannoch in 2150, that same year, Sur'Kesh falls to the invaders, after this important loses, the Citadel and The Terminus Alliance sign a peace treaty and they both begin to push the Turians back, their attacks are a success, from 2150 to 2180, they perform some key battles like the Liberation of Rannnoch, the Third Battle Of Omega, and the Second Battle for Sur'Kesh, then they began an invasion on the Turian empire, the Terminus alliance being the most ruthless, sending asteroids and nuclear barrages to important garden worlds of the Turian Empire, the turians surrendered in 2200 and with that, the brutal Galactic War, as it was known after, ended

2200-2300 CE(present age): the Turian Empire, after losing the war, suffers a revolution that lasts from 2210 to 2230, at the end, the rebels are victorious and they reform the government from The Turian Empire to The Republic Of Grand Turia, which kept the territories that the empire held, it had a Fascist government, and by 2250 they were almost recovered from the war, meanwhile, the Citadel improved its economy and formed a good fleet of mercenaries to help the main fleet, and the Terminus Alliance completed a Dyson Sphere to house the Geth Programs, and then enter a golden age of Science, and begin to explore deep space, with some turian spies stealing a bit of their technology and using it to produce their own space exploration ships.

And that's it. I hope that the timeline didn't disappointed you, if you have any issue with It, leave it on the reviews or pm me, critiques are welcome! So, here is a prelude of the next chapter

Chapter One: an Era Of Expansion: this chapter will introduce the main characters of the story, and it will be in the perspective of all the Factions in this story as they begin to explore further into space I am sorry to say that the contact between the species will begin in the second chapter

Udapte: ok guys, really sorry, I found out that the chapter was a brick of information, I found out why, I forgot to add two spaces while writing : /, so here it is, now I hope its more readable

2 Udapte: i published it again and found that the brick was still there, but now i found the solution, so now this story is oficially readable! enjoy it!, darn... 7 reviwes about the brick of information


	2. Chapter 1: An Era Of Exploration

**So… yes, it has been a loooooong time, i quitted fanfiction , that's why I didn't updated for a long time, I recently returned, eager to start over, and I find this… a huge amount of support, I am very happy for this, my friends, thanks you all, and I promise that I will compensate you for all the time lost, now, let's see how far we can arrive with this story!**

**_Tides Of War_**

**_Chapter 1: An Era Of Exploration_**

**_Mengsk POV_**

Arcturus Mengsk I, Emperor of the Dominion, stands in the balcony of Korhal Palace, watching the cheering crowds below, Terran Alliance flags flying everywhere, as a man, escorted by a squad of UCHN Marines, the marines where quite similar to the old design of Dominion marines, a Red suit, with some slight variations, like the Hammer and Sickle symbol in their chest, Mengsk looked at the man in uniform surrounded by marines in disgust, he was Alexei Stukov, the person he hated most, they represented completely opposite ideals, and their cooperation was only possible because of the intervention of President Samuel Goffen, leader of the Umojan Protectorate, he looked down again, and saw that the UCHN Marines and Stukov had disappeared.

_"__they are inside now… damn that man, I despise these meetings! I hope Goffe arrives soon" _Mengsk thought to himself as he entered the room in which the meeting would take place, it was small, some paintings and a grandfather clock in the walls, in the middle of the room, an circular table was located, three cups of coffee in it, he fixed the neck of his clothes, and standed firm just as the door opened, and General Secretary Alexei Stukov, alone, entered the room, he was wearing a black Navy Uniform full of Condecorations and a hat with a red star on the middle, the the two supreme rulers shared an akward cold look, Mengsk forced himself to smile as he extended his hand "_Its good to see you again Alexei"_ he says coldly, Stukov shakes his hand as he replies "_Yes, I hope our Umojan friend arrives soon"_ Mengsk then sat down, Stukov doing the same, Mengsk took his cup of coffee and took a sip, staring at the man he despised, after a few minutes of silence, cheers could've heard again below and the sound of the palace doors opening filled the room "_Looks like Samuel just arrived "_ Mengsk said, smiling, a minute after his remark, the door to the room opened and Samuel entered, the Blonde man was wearing a formal brown suit and a red tie, glasses on his eyes, he smiled as he entered and shook hands with his two comrades "_we are all finally reunited again " _ he says as he smiled, Mengsk smiled back and then said "_please, take a sit, we have much to discuss…" _the three leaders sit in their chairs, Mengsk clears his throat as he begins to talk

"_We created this alliance to defend humanity and its interests against any foreign race, it has been a while since we heard of the Zerg, and we lost contact with the Protoss Empire some time ago, it has been a long time, and I am concerned about them, but our defenses are strong, and our numbers are vast if combined, so I am confident that we can resist an invasion"_

Stukov took a sip of his coffee and said "_cut the chat, Mengsk, and get to the point, I want to know about the ship, I want to know if it was worthy to give you money and fellow proletariats to work in it"_ Goffen and Mengsk glared at him, Mengsk continued "_very well, I will go straight to the point and give you the good news, the Lucy is done" _Stukov laughed and clapped, Goffen smiled "_the ship is ready to explore other systems"_

_"__now, you may wonder about the details, well, you see, the Lucy is a Kilometer long and 200 meters wide, it's a truly colossal warship, it required time and effort, but we managed to finish it, it will house a crew of 15,000 men from all our governments, only the finest will be allowed to serve in there, the ship is protected by an improved and hardened version of Neosteel, and will have a energy shield that works similarly to the ones the Protoss use, it will contain the latest weaponry of the era, Nuclear Warheads, advanced laser and plasma cannons, thousands of missiles, its Yamato cannons is capable of destroying a Minotaur Class cruiser in one hit, it will also contain a huge research lab for our scientists to research and contain specimens and substances we may find, it has an advanced radar system and the fastest motor in this sector, its stationed in the fortress planet of Shanxi, where it awaits orders "_

_" __soon, under the command of Admiral Shepard, it will go to deep space to explore, and hopefully, find resourceful planets and new races" _Mengsk finished his speech with a sip of coffe, the two other leaders smiled and standed up, beginning to clap "_Brilliant!_" Stukov said "_i can't wait to see what discoveries we will make…"_

**_Corinthus POV_**

"_All Heil the Supreme Leader Victus!" _yelled General Garrus Vakarian as Adrien Victurs hologram appeared on the Bridge of the dreadnought, "_Heil Victus!" _the soldiers and crewmen on the bridge said while saluting, Victus quickly saluted back and headed towards General Vakarian and Admiral Corinthus "_Its good to see you, Supreme Leader " _Corinthus said as he saw him "_You said you had something to inform me about, Admiral Corinthus" _Victus said, Corinthus nodded and replied "_our probes have spotted a small planet habituated by Pinkish creatures near a new Relay we discovered, after hacking into the system of these creatures, we found out the name of the planet is Shanxi, it doesn't seems to be very protected, and maybe it's the creatures homeland, we've decided to name the Relay Shanxi-Teta, what are your plans, Supreme Leader?" knowing the answer, The admiral already had the fleet and invasion force ready_

_Victus, without wasting time, replied "Attack, go through the Relay and conquer the Planet in the name of the Republic Of Great Turia, are they advanced? " _Corinthus shaked his head and said_ " we didn't found any traces of element zero, Supreme Leader, we believe they aren't advanced "_Victus grinned and said_ "__good, they will be easy, force them to submit, I trust in you, admiral"_ with that words, the hologram faded, Corinthus looked at Vakarian, then back to the crew "_ships at full speed! We are heading towards Shanxi! Time for the Repulic of Great Turia to be strong again!" _the turians and Krogen cheered and began to work, Corinthus looked forward as the 8th fleet advanced towards the coordinates of the Relay, _~we will arrive in a day… soon, that planet will be part of the Greater Turian Empire!" _ Corinthus, filled with patriotic excitement, watched the fleet

~_years ago, we were in crumbles, when the revolution came, we were nothing but a shadow of the Turian Empire, but under Victus Leadership, we raised from the ashes and rebuilt our empire, under his dictatorship, Great Turia advanced forward, I remember how I helped, I remember watching the fleets being rebuilt, frigates and cruisers being mass-produced, after some years, we were yet again the powerhouse of the Galaxy, we have the strongest economy, the strongest industry, the strongest army, but we couldn't expand, the rich dogs of the citadel had a large army of mercenaries, and the Terminus Alliance was a serious threat, so we began to explore… we began to send expeditionary fleets to unknown worlds, and now we are heading towards the first unknow world we found…~_ Corinthus thought

He looked at his Codex to read the information again ~Humans… what a peculiar name…~ he looked to General Vakarian, who was looking at a map of the planet, Vakarian was one of the youngest generals in Victus army, he showed incredible talent, Corinthus was glad to have him on his side.

He got lost in thought as the fleet rapidly advanced towards the location of the relay.

**_Overmind POV_**

"_Consume, Adapt, evolve…"_ The voice of the Swarm was high, demanding to consume again, it had been a long time since they last consumed something, meanwhile, the Overmind hid in his domain at Char, planning, spying, adapating, the Terrans and the protoss were to strong, they needed to find a new species, find a new member for the Swarm…

The Overmind, looking through the eyes of different Overlords, examined the vast piece of space, it was called "Terminus" and it looked like a great opportunity for expansion… for evolution, and it was populated, some overlords had already captures some specimens… Quarians, Geths, and Batarians, Gehts proved unable to be infected, those robots intrigued him deeply, they were sentient, their programming couldn't be changed, probably he would've to destroy them all, they couldn't be infested or corrupter, they couldn't evolve, they were useless

The creatures named Quarians were diferent, they were easily infested… without their suits, a quarian would be quickly infected, after some experiments with the captures specimens, they realized that the infected quarians could serve to pass disease to living enemies, and they could be easily massed in hordes quickly

But the ones that he liked most were the Batarians, although they were hard to infect, they were very useful, when infected. They could still carry firing weapons, which made them a great addition to the swarm… The Overmind was ready, soon, the invasion of Terminus would begin, and they would consume them, and after that, they would go and end the job consuming the protoss and the terrans… soon, all of the galaxy would be infected, and the swarm would rule supreme!

**_Han'Gerrel POV_**

The admiral entered the room, looking around, the other leaders of the Terminus Alliance were there, the Batarian dictator Jath'Amon, and the Geth... "Ruler Unit" or something like that, the Geth just called himself "Ruler Unit", he worked in a complex way, technically, all the Geths were connected to it, he was the representation of the Dylar Sphere, he was, in short, the Geth race in one single, advanced unit, both leaders… or leader and "Ruler Unit" greeted him as he sat down

"_I will get to the point, as we know, recently, there has been reports of sightings of some… weird floating creatures, and a high number of disappearances"_ Han said, he then turned to the Ruler Unit "_I am aware that the Geth have captures a specimen" _ The Ruler Unit replied "_yes, we've captured a specimen, and after some research, we believe that we've found its source" _Han Gerrel nodded and turned towards the Batarian, that said "_as we agreed on the previous meeting, a small expeditionary fleet was assembled, its ready to go to find out the source of these creatures " _Han nodded, satisfied _"__we will send them immediately, I will give the order right away"_

**_Tevos POV_**

The Council room was filled with the sound of debate, all the councilors were arguing one with the other, talking about trade, economy, rights… Tevos was the only one siting in her chair, hands on her face, as she sighed, it was so hard to held this country… since she founded the council, she wanted it to be a centralized, unified government, but right now it was just a loose confederation of races all with different interests, sometimes she wondered if she should just dissolve the council, oh how she missed the golden days… then the turians, batarians, and quarians left and the Galactic war started, crippling the council army, luckily, they had vast resources, and, besides the standing armies of all the races, they had a massive mercenary fleet

"_Councilor Tevos! Me and my Drell counterpart demand action! We must enter Terminus space again! The T.A. is weak! We must reclaim what is ours! " _yelled the Hanar councilor, the drell councilor nodding in approval Tevos stands up and yells "_we won't enter another Galactic war! The T.A. has better equipment, we got numbers, they got quality, and the Republic of Great Turia is stronger than ever! We don't know if they will take sides in the war! "_ the drell councilor frowned and said "_we must have a strong military! I demand for an increase in the military budget!" _Tevos facepalmed and said "_We are already spending massive amounts of money in our mercenary fleet!" _The Volus councilor replied "_Exactly! We must dissolve it and spend more in our economy! Our burocracy is corrupt and our education inefficient! " _the Salarian Councilor quickly agreed with him "_I agree with my volus counterpart, we must spend more on education" _

Tevos rubbed her face in desesperation ~_we are never going to progress like this…"_

**_Tassadar POV_**

A month ago, Tassadar led a coup against the Emperor and the Conclave, and it was a huge success, he crowned himself Emperor, dissolved the enclave, and remained with absolute power, he has just mobilized a strong fleet and army, and was ready to bring the Empire back to its golden age, how? By conquest and colonization, time ago, they had discovered a number of new races, allied in an organization known as "The Council", and Emperor Tassadar was commanding the armies headed there, he was going to conquer them, no time for negotiations or contact, just outright conquest, The Prottoss would rise again, they would be great once again… and those weak races would submit to the Sons Of The Xel-Naga!

**So, yeah, first chapter, next chapter, dun dun dun…**

**THE BATTLE OF SHANXI!**

**Maybe I will cover it all in a long chapter, or divide it in parts, anyways, see you next time, next chapter will have a huge amount of fighting, both naval and terrestrial **


	3. Chapter 2: The Battle of Shanxi part 1

**Sup? After a bit of investigation, I found out that in terms of space combat, terrans are somewhat superior to turians , the Gorgon-Class battlecruiser, the largest class of ships in the terran navy, is up to 560km long, while the Mass Effect dreadnought is a kilometer long, now, a small issue, in the lore, the turians have 39 dreadnoughts because of that treaty, as they are out of the council, they aren't subject to the treaty, and well, after the fascist takeover, they have a big number of dreadnoughts, I would guess that some 50-60 would be fine, as dreadnoughts ate heard and expensive to build, now, on the issue of the other ships, I am guessing that frigates are way smaller than a normal, Behemot class ship, and cruiser is smaller too, I think a cruiser is the size of a minotaur class, for what I've read in the internet, they are smaller than Behemots, so yeah, I will have it this way, 2-3 squads of frigates can take down a minotaur class warship, it takes double to take down a behemot, and even more to take down a gorgon, a single cruiser can take down a minotaur in a fair fight, for behemots, they a small group is needed, and for the gorgons, a large group,, now, on dreadnoughts, they can easily destroy plenty of minotaurs in a battle, behemots would be harder, but still somewhat easy to beat, it would requiere a large group of behemots/gorgon warships to take on a dreadnought, so the turians have the advantage on that, sadly for them, they have only 60 of them, in this story, to give more advantage to the turians, I am giving them the numbers advantage, so yeah, its basically quantity vs quality**

**Now, with ground battles… its obvious who has the advantage, the good old Terran marines, with their heavy gauss rifles, it would requiere a great deal of firepower from the turian soldiers to take them down, and that's just with marines, we have goliats, marauders, ghosts, tanks, and all that, so yeah, I am still thinking of how giving the turians an advantage on the field, on later chapters I will talk about the balance of the different factions, now getting to the chapter, as they say, "war is when old men talk and young men die" we already meet the old men, the classy leaders, we got the uneasy terran alliance, with Mengsk and his craziness, stukov and his style, goffen and his calmness, we got the forever arguing council with its childish, brainless councilors, the serious and united Terminus alliance with their dictator, their leader, and their ruling unit, we got the zerg and the overmind, the lovable Supreme General Victus, leader of The Republic of Greater Turia, and much more, now its time to meet the young, hard men, the generals and soldiers in the battlefield, the ones that sacrifice everything for their countries!**

_**Tides Of War**_

_**Front: Turian Front**_

_**Theatre: Theta System**_

_**Chapter 2: The Battle Of Shanxi Part 1**_

**Corinthus POV**

Corinthus looked around the bridge of the ship, his fellow crewmen where working to pilot the ship and maintain it stable, "_The Star Of Palaven__"_ was one of the best dreadnoughts they had, it was technically the third most powerful dreadnought in the fleet, the first one being "_Victus__", _named after his friend and leader, who had the obsession of naming everything after him, Corinthus smiled at the thought of it, the supreme leader had created a massive cult of personality when he got in power, sometimes he wondered if Victus was still the same, but he always shaked that thought away, he was very loyal to his friend, he wouldn't allow himself to doubt on him, the second most powerful dreadnought was "_Trevia_" named after the home system of the turians, then there was his beloved, personal warship, it was indeed a powerful dreadnought, 1 kilometer and 300 meters long, it was truly a colossus, the 6th fleet, better known as "_The Minor Invasion Fleet" _was one of the most disciplined fleets, surpassed only by the 5th fleet, or as they called it, "_The Main Invasion Fleet" _the 5th fleet was truly massive, thousands of fighters, hundreds and hundreds of cruisers and frigates, and 12 Dreadnoughts, under the command of Victus himself, but in a meeting a few months ago, Victus said that maybe he would make him leader of that fleet… and Minister of the Navy.

He smiled at this thought, if he managed to conquer this planet, surely Victus would promote him "_Admiral, we are at the relay, your orders?" _one of the crewmen asked, Corinthus looked at the window of the bridge to see the Mass Relay infront of them, he immediately walked towards the main screen of the bridge, and began to press some digital buttons, his face began to appear in digital screens all over the ship, and other ships, he cleared his throat and began to speak

"_My dear Turian and Krogan brethren, we are about to pass through a mass relay, when we go to the other side, we will take some hours to arrive to the planet, and we will get ready in that time, that planet, Shanxi, is inhabitated by the so called "Human Race", they are all inferior compared to the turians and the krogan, by order of the Supreme Leader himself, we have to subjugate this planted, we will conquer it in the name of the Republic, it should be easy, we haven't found any Element Zero in the planet, its obvious that they are nothing but uncivilized scum"_

"_and under my command, we will conquer this wretched, inferior race, we will introduce them to civilization! They will know the wonders of Eezo, they will get technology, and they will gladly serve us, at first they will offer resistance, but we will crush them easily, without Eezo, I doubt they can go to space, my comrades, lets show them the might of Great Turia, lets show them our power, they will be crushed easily, the weak humans will tremble before our superior weapons! To the captains, I tell you, lead your men into battle with honor! Demonstrate your superior Turian blood! Act like leaders, crush the enemy! To the turian soldiers, I tell you, go on and fight with bravery! Obey every single command of your officers! Fight for the glory of our nation! To the Krogan, I tell you, use your strength to fight for your Turian masters! Obey every single command! Sacrifice your life is you must! And to all of you, captains, turian soldiers, and krogan, I tell you, if you die, your sacrifice will be remembered and honored, monuments will be built to praise your deeds! So forward! All captains! Forward towards the relay, forward to conquer new worlds! Heil Victus! Savior of Great Turia! Supreme leader of the turian and krogan races, the chosen one of the spirits themselves! Heil Victus! Heil Victus! Heil Victus!"_

Corinthus smiled as he heard the "_Heil Victus" _salute all around the ships, and from the communicators, he could hear it from other ships too, it was time, time for battle, time for conquest, he gave the order, and "_The Pride Of Palaven_" immediately entered the relay, launched towards the new system, ready to conquer

**Shepard POV**

Admiral John Shepard stared at the vast space infront of the bridge, he loved space, its vastness, its tranquility, and he loved his new ship, "_Lucy__"_ even more, a kilometer long ship, first of its class, it was truly a monster, Reinforced with a protoss-like shield, armed with an Heavy Main Battery on the front of the ship ressembling the Gorgon-Class main batteries, but this one was different and although it was slower, it hit harder, an upgraded Yamato cannon, light Anti-Fighters batteries, Anti-Infantry laser batteries, Heavy laser batteries for space combat, Plasma torpedoes to cripple heavy ships, nuclear missiles as a last resource, and normal missiles, which where really helpful as they where released on large amounts and concentrated on one target, or spread out for multiple targets, it was truly a monster, a single shoot from the yamato cannon would destroy a Behemot and Hercules-class, he was surprised and proud when President Goffen himself announced to him about the ship, he was glad that an Umojan was leading this ship, the ship was named after the first human on history, Lucy, and it was intended to be a ship for exploration, its decks could hold tens thousands of marines , and it had a crew of almost 12,000 men, it seemed as an impossible treat, but with the monstrous Industrial capacity of the UHCN, the ingenious scientists and engineers of the Umojan Protectorate, and the workers and navy experts of the dominion, it was possible, this ship was an example of cooperation between the Terran alliance, it was made in hope of improving the unity of the alliance, and it worked perfectly

"_lets test this ship speed and efficiency, move circularly around the planet" _he said to the pilots, they nodded and immediately began to work, typing codes and commands, turning on the motors, Joker, Shepard good friend and the main pilot, was the one directing the ship mobility, going to the side, to the front, to any direction he wanted, the man immediately began to direct the ship to move circularly around the main planet of the Theta system, Shanxi, the system consisted of a small sun and four planets, Shanxe being the bigger and most developed one, although it was the last planet and the farthest from the sun, it was still the most developed one Shepard watched as the ship successfully turned its motors on and began to circle the planet, going on a great speed, some time passed and the ship completed its orbit, the crewmen applauded and Shepard sighed in relief, right now, the leaders of the Terran Alliance where watching this from a camera

the 8th Fleet of the Dominion was stationed there, it was a decently large fleet, the bulk of the fleet where a good amount of Behemot Class ships and wraiths, several Gorgon class ships too, around the planet, several space stations where stationed around the planet as well, armed with powerful Ion cannons and heavy plasma batteries, plus, in the surface of the planet, heavy, long-range artillery was in position to fire if anything got very close to the orbit of the planet, it was a great line of defense, the fleet, the stations, and the ground defenses, but it was a bit isolated, the closest planet was the UHCN New Stalingrad fortress that was a week of travel away, with a fleet that could assist them in any moment, in short, Shanxi was unbeatable, he looked at the crewmen and said "_good job! Now I want to advance forward, go east of the planet" _he indicated the distance and coordinates and the crewmen immediately began to work, moving the ship to face the east and beginning to advance at a great speed, in short time they where there, Shepard activated his com to talk with Emperor Mengsk, the head of the project and the one he had to report to "_Emperor, requesting permission to go deeper into space, escorted by two gorgons" _after a moment, the Emperor answered "_Request accepted, you have permission to go as deep as you want, except out of the system and our radars, of course " _the communications ended there, and he saw as two Gorgon-class warship approaching, each one getting into the sides of the ship.

"_Go deeper, straight" _Lucy began to move quickly, the two gorgon class following closely "_lets see if we can reach the Unidentified Object A-453, its at a quite far distance, and within reach of the radars and inside this solar system, perfect to test the ship, probably we can go to New Stalingrad then to test it further, in a couple of days after testing, we will be able to start our mission "_ Shepard said to the communicator of the ship, his voice echoing through all the ship, and inside the meeting room of the Terran Alliance in New Stalingrad, the ship kept advancing at a surprising rate, and they hadn't tested slip-space, after an hour of traveling, they arrived to the A-3 satellite, one of the 3 satelittes near the Unidentified Object A-453 heard a report from General Warfield, stationed in Shanxi "_Admiral, we have just lost contact with Satellite A-2, and some hours ago we lost contact with A-1, we thought it was just a malfunction, but the A-2 actually captured some sounds, I want you to come back, immediately, we may be in danger " _Shepard quickly took the communicator and began to talk "_Negative, General, I am staying here, this ship can deal with even a Protoss Mothership, if something goes wrong, we can always see if Slip-space works and go back to earth in an instant, I am going to send a squad of wraiths to investigate"_

"_Fine, but stay safe, Warfield Out" _Shepard pressed a button and talked again "_Shepard to Barracks A-23, all personal on Barracks A-23 report to Hangar B-12" _a voice responded "_Copied, Admiral" _

**Joshep Clemont POV**

Captain Joshep Clemont, leader of the "_Blue Angels"_ squadron, and Captain of the 10 squadrons composing the Blue Wing, checked his fellow pilots, most Terran Alliance fighter where divided in an easy system of command, first, there was the ship where all the fighters resided, they where divided in Wings, that where divided in 10 squads, with 6 fighters each, the Blue Wing was composed of Wraiths only, and was the finest Wing in the Lucy, and one of the best in the Dominion, after getting sure they where all on formation, they turned to the camera in the door "_We are Ready Sir!" _he yelled at the camera, the voice of Admiral Shepard answered "_Good, get into your ships Immediately, I have an assignement for you, we lost contact with Satellite A-2, and wraiths are faster and better scouts, I want you to go on the general direction of the Satellite and find you what happened to it, I must warn you that there may be engagement, Engage only if forces are hostile " _

"_Sir, Yes Sir!"_ The group exclaimed, and they quickly put on their pilot helmets, that covered their head, ears, and a black glass in the eyes, and then they rushed towards their Wraiths, Joshep climbed into his own wraith, painted blue to symbolize the Wing it belonged to, a symbol of two blue wings to represent a squad, and the sides golden to symbolize his leadership, as he got inside the wraith, he closed the cabin and pressed a couple of buttons to turn on the ship, he activated the motors and put on the mask connected on the wraith in his mouth, and he began to slowly go up, then he moved the ship forward to exit the hangar, his wraith was the first one to come out, slowly, the others came out too until the full wing was assembled "_Ok Boys and Girls, we are going at max speed towards the following location " _he said over the communicator and began to type the coordinates of the satellite, sending it to the other wraiths radars "_as admiral Shepard said, engage only if the forces are hostile, but don't worry, probably its just a malfunction, now, Lets go Blue Wing!" _grabbing the controller in the cabin, he moved it forward, going towards the coordinates, his comrades following nearby

going at maximum speed, they quickly got away from the Lucy until it was just a distant dot, and then completely disappeared from their sights after a while "_Wing, ready weapons and missiles" _he said over the communicator, receiving several "_Weapons Ready Sir"_ replies "_Sir! My Radar caught something ahead of us!" _the leader of one of the squads said

"_And its coming in fast!" _Joshep quickly checked his radar, and saw three red dots that where heading straight towards the wraiths, and vice versa "_Active camouflage, now!" _he yelled in the communicator and then pressed a button, the Wraith camouflage became active, becoming invisible now, the other wraiths did the same, until they where all out of sight, he pressed a button on the side of his helmet and the outline of the invisible ships appeared, they advanced forward, and after a moment, they saw what was in their radars

three small ships, bigger than a wraith, smaller than a minotaur-class battlecruiser, where advancing forward, "_Contact! Contact! We got contact!" _he screamed in the communicators "_Admiral Shepard, we have contact! Three unidentified ships are here! Not protoss nor zerg!" _he pressed some buttons and sent footage of the ships to the Lucy, after a few minutes, in which the unknown ships moved forward and the wraith Wing retreated, he got the reply of the admiral "_broadcast what I am saying to the ships captain" _he quickly began to press some buttons to try and communicate with the small ships, after a while, he managed to open a line of communications, the ships would surely hear them now

he pressed another button and said "ready sir!" the Admiral cleared his mouth and began speaking "_I am Admiral John Shepard of the Terran Aliance, in the name of the whole nation, I welcome to the Planted Shanxi, I will have to request for your ships to stay where you are, a ship of the Alliance will go towards your position shortly" _the admiral repeated the message for 10 minutes, until a strange, foreign voice replied, to the surprise of everyone, in the language of the terrans

"_I am Admiral Corinthus, and I demand for your planet to surrender to the might of the Republic of Great Turia, you must turn off all weapons and peacefully let our armies to occupy the planet, or the consequences will be dear, surrender or die, we don't come to negotiate" _the message ended there, nothing else was heard until Shepard said "_Open Fire" _

"_Yes Sir! Blue Wing! Attack formations! Fire on my command!"_ the wraiths got In formation, each squad assembled into V-shaped formation, he marked one of the ships in the radar and advanced forward, the squads following him "_Fire!" _the Blue Angels where the first to fire, launching two anti-aerial missiles towards one of the frigates, the other squads soon followed and launched their own missiles, the missiles of the first five squads to fire impacted into some form of shield, that absorbed most of the damage, but it was soon proved to be useless the other five squads missiles impacted right into the ship armour, it was very effective, huge chunks of the ship exploded, plunging metal and bodies into the space, the frigate was heavily damaged, and the other two began to shoot on the general direction of the wraiths "_Break up! I want three squads fighting each ship! Go go go! " _he exclaimed as he got out of the way of the shoots, the ships where firing something strange, it looked like laser, he would investigate that later, now it was time for fighting, the Blue Wave and Blue Dragon squadron joined him as he drived towards the damaged frigate, they fired their missiles and hit the top of the ship, damaging it further

he spotted a small cabin in which the pilot of the ship stayed, trying to stabilize the ship, he fired his missiled towards the cabin, he didn't hit the cabin directly, but hit nearly and he saw fire in the cabin, he drived very close to the cabin of the ship to see a scared, grey, ugly and tall alien trying to close a door to stop the fire, the alien turned to look at him and a second later the whole cabin got caught on fire, Joshep watched happy as the hostile alien burned down and he moved the ship up, the three squads fired another barrage of missiles and the frigate finally went down, the ship was on fire and began to split on two "_One down, two to go!" _the trio of squads turned and drived towards the less damaged frigate "_fire to the center of the ship! Now!" _he yelled and the six squads fired their missiles at the same time, a huge explosion appeared on contact and the ship split in half, one of the halves exploding, the other left to wander aimlessly at space

"_Sir we need help! This one is getting away" _one of the squad leaders said, the last remaining frigate was retreating, trying to get to safety "_Shoot at the motors! Go go go!" _all the wing went at full speed towards the back of the ship and fired, their missiles hittingthe motors and causing a chain reaction in the ship, causing the back of the ship to explode and the other half to spin without control and get launched into a random direction, no escaping pod appeared in any of the ships, no survivors, good "_Admiral, the three ships where destroyed, awaiting for orders]" _he said in the communicator, Shepard soon replied "_Retreat back to the Lucy immediately, I am afraid that there are more of them coming, go on full speed, captain, we will need to retreat back to the planet" _Joshep immediately transmitted this order to his Wing and began a full retreat at maximum speed towards the Satellite A-3

**Corinthus POV**

"_What is this shit, by the spirits?! Three frigates, three fucking frigates, destroyed? No survivors? And they didn't managed to destroy even one fucking enemy?!" _he yelled at the lieutenant giving him a report, three frigates, destroyed by an invisible enemy "_S-S-Sir! The captains reported they couldn't detect the enemies in their radars and couldn't see them! Projectiles just appeared and moved towards them! " _the nervous lieutenant said, Corinthus sighed and dismissed the lieutenant with a sign, the fleet was heading at full speed towards the planet "_Admiral! Something big is on the radars!"_ Corinthus quickly ran to the big window of the bridge to see the four small dots "_Stop, we shouldn't risk with sending the whole fleet, send ten cruisers, the rest of the fleet, retreat " _he said in the communicator, broadcasting his message to all the officers of the fleet, some minutes later, ten Turian cruisers advanced forward and began to head towards the small dots

**Shepard POV**

"_Sir! We got ten targets approaching us fast! They are almost the size of a Minotaur Class ship according to our radars!"_ one of the crewmen yelled "_Ready the Yamato Cannon! Quickly!" _he screamed and then took the communicator, broadcasting a message to the two Gorgon-Class ships with them on the satellite to ready their own Yamato cannons , the wraith Wing has just arrived, but they didn't had time to go back to the planet, he had aleady sent a message in which he declared that he would try to hold the enemy off until they began to built defenses, it shouldn't be that hard, the two types of ship they've seen so far where smaller than a minotaur class, what could go wrong?

Soon the three battlecruisers had their Yamatos activated, warmed up, loaded, and ready to fire at any moment, soon, the figures of ten Cruisers, each one besides another one, forming a single line, became clear, they got closer and closer, when they got into fire range, red laser-like projectiles got launched from the ships, when they hit the reinforced, improved neosteel of the Lucy, he wasn't surprised to find out that those ships projectiles and batteries had the same power of a Minotaur Class, in short, they did little damage, and the ship fire wasn't concentrated on one target, instead each ship fired randomly ~_Guess these aliens aren't very intelligent…~ _he activated the communicator again and yelled "_Fire at will!" _a red sphere began to glow on the tip of the three ships and after some seconds, three huge red blast made its way towards the formation, each blast impacted one cruiser, and on impact, the whole cruiser exploded quite a lovely sight to behold, three cruisers down, and each ship had only fired one shoot

The cruisers stopped their fire for a moment, and then began to shoot again, but this time focusing on the Gorgon Class on the left of the ship "_Shit! Load the plasma torpedoes! Shoot the main battery! " _he screamed, immediately, the main battery in the tip of the ship shoot, the projectile hit a cruiser right in the center of the ship, causing considerable damage, as the main battery was being reloaded, he heard a voice in the communicator "_Four torpedoes ready Admiral"_ Shepard smiled and gave an order "_Fire the torpedoes, two on each ship " _four plasma torpedoes where launched from the underside of the ship and traveled and lighting speed towards the cruiser line, two cruisers where hit by two torpedoes each, Shepard laughed as the cruisers exploded and went down, the main battery fired again and hit the same cruiser, in the right spot, as the projectile hit the ship and caused an explosion, a second, bigger explosion appeared and split the ship in half "_Alright boys, we hit the core of the ship, good work! Six ships down! Four to go!"_ he looked out at the window of the bridge and was surprised to see that there where only two cruisers remaining, the Gorgon-class battlecruisers where responsible for that

"_launch normal missiles towards the remaining ships" _he said as he saw the two cruisers turning around to try and make it back to their fleet, missiles started to come out of the Lucy and head at full speed towards the retreating cruisers, the alien ships couldn't stand this assault and exploded, the whole bridge began to cheer as the ships exploded, there where some escape pods and transport ships retreating at full speed, but he ignored it, no need to kill survivors, soon, the voice of Emperor Mengsk himself came out of the communicator "_Admiral John Shepard, I order you to come back to Shanx, immediately "_ Shepard sighed, and turned to Joker, the pilot "_Joker, take us back to shanxi" _the man nodded and said "_sir yes sir!"_ and began to move the ship back towards the planet, the gorgons following closely

**Corinthus POV**

"_Explain yourself, Now" _he said, glaring at the trembling officer kneeling infront of him, who said in a nervous voice "_T-T-T-hey where t-t-t-to Powerful Admiral, I had no idea of t-their firepower! When they destroyed t-t-three c-c-cruisers in a single shoot I thought we could overpower them, I focused my fire, I tried Admiral! I swear on the spirits that I tr-_" his story was interrupted by an Omni-Blade piercing his skull, killing him immediately, Corinthus pulled his arm away, Omni-Blade turning down and the dead turian body fell to the ground with the thump, the other high ranking officers who survived the disastrous skirmish where executed by soldiers in a similar way too, he turned to look at the turian crewmen in the bridge, some with shocked expressions, and said "_This is a warning to all of you, failure is not an option, these men humiliated the Turian fleet with their incompetence, defeat will be punished with dead" _everything standing between him and his promotion had to be removed, ten cruisers and three frigates down and they didn't even took a single enemy ship with them, maybe they subestimated this so called "Humanity" no, it couldn't be, the Turian race was superior.

"_I want a full scale attack now, organize squads of four, no, six frigates accompanied with a cruiser for the battle, ready the fighters and the transport ships, we will destroy all the single ships they have" _the crewmen rushed to give the orders of the admiral, and he turned to face his friend, Garrus Vakarian "_Old friend, you will lead the assault on the planet, do as you want" _the general nodded and said "_don't expect me to kill civilians, Corinthus, I will destroy military targets, but I won't do anything to civilians" _he shook his head and replied "_I would never ask you for something like that, Vakarian, go and plan your strategy, I have a naval battle to win " _he turned around to face the main monitor of the ship, where he could see the different angles of the ship and the space, it was time, time for the battle, time to prove the superiority of Great Turia.

**Timeskip, some hours later**

**Clemont POV**

He moved the Wraith to the side just in time to avoid the burst of laser projectiles headed towards him, he reduced speed and saw the alien fighter passing, perfect chance, he speed up and now he was behind, he took aim and pressed the red trigger on the stick he used to drive the wraith, laser projectiles began to shoot from the light laser batteries in the wraith, the first ones missed, but the last ones managed to hit the fighter in the back and in one of its wings, causing the rockets it used to move to explode and one of the wings to separate from the ship was the rest was caught on fire, he looked out to check on his fellow squad members from the window of his cabin, two allies down, all of the enemy squad down, a good exchange

"_Lets go boys! Lets take down some ships!"_ Clemont had already lost the sense of time, he didn't know how much he had been driving the wraith, he only knew that he had to take down as many alien ships as possible, his wing was dispersed, all the squads on their own, as he ordered it, his thoughts were interrupted by a projectile almost hitting his wrath, they where in the middle of a fight between a cruiser and a Minotaur, he quickly pulled the wraith up, getting out of the line of fire, his squad following closely

"_release missiles boy! Time to give a little help to our Minotaurs" _he shouted over the communicator as the squad descended towards the cruiser, he quickly pressed the red button on the top of the stick, sending two missiles straight towards the ship, a piece of burnt metal and sometimes body parts appear each time a missile hit, he repeated this action multiple times until the squad left the cruiser behind "_Round Two!" _he said as he turned his wraith back and speed up, launching missiles as he approached, as he launched the third set of missiles, some of the batteries turned around and began to shoot at them.

He quickly moved the stick to the side, causing the wraith to spin as the laser-like projectiles hit him, he caught a glimpse of an explosion in his left eye, one of his companions wasn't as lucky, he speed up again and taking aim, fired at one of the batteries, in a stroke of luck he hit right in the spot, ripping the battery off the ship, he saw several missiles hit the batteries or the area around them, yet again they passed the ship, and as they where about to turn, an explosion enveloped the ship, turning it into a useless, giant piece of burnt scrap

He took a quick look around the space visible from his window, alien ships and terran ships fighting was all he could see, thousands and thousands of projectiles traveling at full speed between ships, a behemot going down under the combined fire of a group of cruisers there, a Gorgon shooting at a squad of retreating frigates, it was a complete and utter chaos "_Sir! Any orders!" _the voice of one of the squad leaders said "_All return to the General position of the Lucy, we will meet there, shoot all ships you find in your way there" _he replied as he increased the speed and drived towards the distant green dot that appeared in his radar, his squad following him, he pressed the red button multiple times to fire missiles at frigates and cruisers as they passed, even managing to destroy a frigate with a lucky shot

He pressed the red button again, aiming at a damaged cruiser, but nothing happened, "_Alright boys, we are going to enter the Lucy for re-filling ammo!" _he said, and they just avoided fire until they arrived to the massive ship and began to head towards the hangar, he noticed that the other wraith squadrons of his Wing were already inside the hangars, refilling ammo and fuel, well, maybe they could get a small rest before going into battle again, he sighed as he began to enter the hangar, some engineers and staff guiding him, he had suddenly realized how tired he was

**Shepard POV**

**Timeskip**

He fell to the ground as the bombardment began again, every time it began, the ship began to shake violently and he fell to the ground, he managed to stand up, supporting on everything he could find, and yelled "_Load all the Plasma Torpedoes we can! Prepare the missiles for launching! All heavy batteries point forward to the cruisers! Keep firing the main battery!" _he yelled as he looked at the monitor in front of him, it showed 15 cruisers firing an endless supply of different projectiles "_Missiles ready sir!"_ a crewman said just as the main battery fired again, destroying one damaged cruiser

"_Fire!" _he yelled and a moment later, different compartments on the top of the ship opened, launching several missiles towards the cruiser flotilla attacking them, the huge swarm of missiles reduced the number of standing cruisers to 7 "_Plasma Torpedoes ready sir!" _the same crewmen yelled, he repeated his order and soon enough the blue torpedoes appeared from under the ship, heading at full speed towards the attackers, doing a massive amount of damage on impact, four ships down, three to go

two cruisers went down due to the constant fire of the Heavy batteries and the Main Battery, the remaining ship attempted to turn around and retreat, only to be taken down by a nearby Behemot "_Damages?" _he said turning to a man typing something in a computer " _all the damage was taken by the ships, shields at 40%" _Shepard silently cursed, the fleet had been attacked by an endless amount of small ships and minotaur-sized ships, the fleet had taken numerous causalities, with most of the minotaurs destroyed and about half of the behemots down, but it didn't compared to the causalities of the invaders, all around the battle, there where thousands of burnt bodies, destroyed escape pods, and useless remains of what used to be magnificent alien ships

four days ago, he had been given by Emperor Mengsk himself the duty of defending the system, all the cruisers available in the system had been sent to Shanxi to defend it, he had done the best he could to defend it, stablishing a huge perimeter of Behemot class ships surrounding the planet, with several minotaurs using their speed to travel between weak points to reinforce them, and the few Gorgons they had behind the lines, ready to contain any breach in the line, it worked at the beginning, with the small ships crushed and retreating each day, but they soon found out they where like the zerg, endless, the line was soon breached, hours ago and the ships mixed, ending any hope of organized defense

"_Admiral, I think we must retreat to the Guanxi planet and re-organize there, leave the defense of the planet to General Warfield, we have enough troops in the ground to defend, Shanxi, but if we stay here, the defense is gone for good and Theta is lost" _his first mate and advisor, Commander Damien Astier from the UHCN said, Shepard shook his head and replied "_we must hold longer, at least one more day, Commander, for four days Warfield has prepared the orbital cannons and the long range artillery to fight any landing attempts, he is organizing the ground defenses now, Bunkers, trenches, Siege tanks formations, civilian bunkers, one more day and the planet will be impenetrable, we will held positions for one more day, then the fleet will retreat to Guanxi to wait for the reinforcements Stukov promised from New Stalingrad"_ he looked at the monitors, no ships approaching, the enemy was being pushed back, he typed something in the monitor and opened a communication line with the captains of the gorgons "_Advance forward, we are making a final push to make the enemy retreat" _he said and immediately ended the communications

"_Full speed ahead, load missiles and torpedoes again, get the yamato ready, all batteries aiming to the front" _he said, two minutes later, the Lucy began to move at full speed, getting deeper into the battle, firing missiles, torpedoes, yamatos, and projectiles at everything that wasn't green on the radar, the Gorgons doing the same, the behemots caught the message and soon, all the Terran Battlecruisers were firing everything they had, giving a last effort to end the fighting for the day, 30 minutes and several alien ships down later, the enemy was in full retreat, going towards the direction of their fleet, in every single Terran ship, the humans celebrated, happy for another day of fighting

he reopened the communications with the commanders of the gorgons and some behemot commanders, the main leaders of the battle " _organize the behemots into the same formation we had, send all the remaining minotaurs to Shanxi, Warfield will know what to do with them, this time, put the gorgons inside the formation too, my ship will remain behind lines, I would go to the front, but the Lucy is too strategic to be lost" _he said, the leaders nodded and closed communications, ready to do as instructed

**Corinthus POV**

"_a-a-a-admiral p-p-please" _the vice-admiral said as he and other high officers backed to the wall, turian soldiers slowly advancing with their weapons up, Vakarian leading them

"_I don't give second chances, mercy is a reward, I don't reward failure" _he said, not caring about their begging "_all yours, Vakarian" _he said, soon, the reconfirming sound of gunfire and the delicious sound of blood spilling and turians yelling filled his ears, he sighed, he loved that sound, this was the fifth time it happened, every time he used a different form of execution, each time an attack failed and the leaders didn't die fighting, he executed them, following his policy of no second chances

he walked towards the bridge and left Vakarian to clean up the mess, as he arrived, he immediately opened communications with the captains of the cruisers and frigates "_I will go myself next, to show to you, incompetent bastards, what a real battle is like, the planet will fall, and then we will go for the next planets in this wretched system, Heil Victus" _he ended the communications and opened a new channel, this time with the captains of the dreadnoghts "_we are going in ourselves, this fleet has six dreadnoughts, and these six dreadnoughts will take the planet, we will destroy the fleet, some cruisers will accompany us, prepare yourselves, we will march when I say so, Heil Victus" _he ended communications again and went to his quarters, these humans where much more powerful than expected, a day ago, he had reached the point of asking Victus himself for reinforcements, when he gave the reports of the massive loses of the fleet, victus almost got a heart attack, he was sure he was going to send another admiral to take care of the job and kill him, but then he gave the news about this new race, space-faring, with advanced technology, and immediately his face lightened and he smiled, promised reinforcements, and cut communications

Victus was sometimes weird, but he was glad he didn't got any punishments, anyways, soon, his dreadnoughts would attack and the planet would fall, the strategy for the other planets would come later, now, it was time for rest

**THE END COMRADES!**

**Next chapter, The Battle of Shanxi part 2! We will see the dreadnoughts trying to make a final push and drive the fleet out of shanxi! Next chapter will be initially in clemont and Shepard POVS, but then it will be mostly a Vakarian/Warfiel POV, more soldiers will be introduced next chapter**

**Until next time!**


End file.
